Undergraduate study - 2025 entry
Edinburgh: Extraordinary futures await.

Subject area: Medicine

Why choose Medicine at the University of Edinburgh?

  • We are ranked in the UK's top five universities for medicine by both the Complete University Guide (2023), and the Guardian University Guide (2023).

  • You will receive clinical training throughout your studies, preparing you to become a competent, ethical and reflective doctor. Training comprises of hospital placements in the city’s three teaching hospitals and other regional sites across the south of Scotland, in community general practices, and in our state-of-the-art clinical skills and simulation suites.

  • Our programme includes an academic year of research-based study in a biomedical or related subject of your choosing. This means you will graduate with two qualifications, a BMedSci (Hons) and an MBChB. In addition to your clinical studies, you will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience of laboratory-based scientific research.

Study abroad

The programme creates well-trained doctors through rigorous clinical teaching. It also teaches us about the global importance of health and places things in context. With Edinburgh's reputation, I am comforted that I will be guaranteed a job in the future.

Annika Wilder-Smith MBChB Class of 2022
Annika Wilder-Smith MBChB Class of 2022

Introducing Medicine

Medicine at Edinburgh is ranked in the UK's top five universities by both the Complete University Guide (2023), and the Guardian University Guide (2023). We offer a modern, innovative curriculum designed to prepare you for contemporary medical practice.

Our aim is for you to become a competent, ethical and reflective doctor, with the care of patients as your first concern.

You will graduate as an excellent communicator and team player, plus you will be:

  • prepared for complex and uncertain situations
  • equipped for ongoing personal development
  • trained for high professional achievement and leadership

Edinburgh's future doctors will be equipped with:

  • an understanding of the latest in medical science
  • the clinical skills to treat patients effectively
  • the personal attributes and attitudes required to meet the standards of good medical practice as laid out by the General Medical Council (GMC)

Edinburgh Medical School has been leading medical education, training and research for more than 300 years. Pioneers including the creator of anaesthesia, James Young Simpson, and Joseph Lister, discoverer of antiseptic, studied here.

In recent years, we have led major medical innovations in:

  • stem cell research
  • cancer
  • immunity
  • and many other fields

We are the only Scottish institution to offer a six-year MBChB programme, which includes a full year of research-based study in Year 3.

Many students will either present or publish their research findings, which is beneficial to their future career. Our graduates typically perform well in entrance exams for the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons.

You will choose from a range of more than 20 honours programmes, covering topics in biomedical and clinical science as well as the medical humanities. These include disciplines such as:

  • neuroscience
  • immunology
  • global health
  • anthropology
  • sociology of medicine and health sciences, which has surgical, medical and primary care streams

At the end of the programme you will graduate with both a research-based Bachelor of Medical Sciences honours degree and an MBChB primary medical qualification.

You will have a deep understanding of medical research and evidence-based medicine, and will have developed your analytical skills. All of these will be useful in your chosen career. You will be able to understand and lead innovation in all fields of medicine, from general practice to hospital-based specialities or public health.

Progression directly from Years 2 to 4 is possible for graduate entrants to the programme.

The MBChB curriculum content is designed to meet the GMC's outcomes for graduates. These will be achieved as you progress through your courses and attachments based on the human experience, activity and behaviour, from biomedical sciences to clinical practice within GP practices and hospital attachments in Edinburgh and across Scotland.

By the end of the programme, you will be well-equipped for a career in academic medicine, general practice or hospital medicine.

The selection process for the MBChB involves a face-to-face component for shortlisted candidates.